India-UK Joint Statement on Energy and Climate Change

1. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, and the Prime Minister of
the Republic of India, Narendra Modi, stressed that addressing climate change and
promoting secure, affordable and sustainable supplies of energy are shared strategic
priorities for India and the UK. They noted with appreciation the strong history of
collaboration between the two countries in support of these aims and committed to
strengthen bilateral cooperation to this end.

2. The two Prime Ministers underlined their shared and uncompromising commitment to
tackling climate change. They stressed that it is one of the greatest global challenges of
the century having adverse impacts at the national and international levels. They
emphasised both countries share the long-term target of holding the increase in global
average temperature below 2 degree Celsius above preindustrial levels. They
emphasised the importance of international cooperation in the context of sustainable
development that brings wider benefits of energy security and access, poverty
eradication, economic growth and jobs.

3. The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to taking action at the domestic
level. Prime Minister Cameron underlined the UK’s commitment to reducing its
greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, as set out in the 2008 Climate
Change Act, meeting its carbon budgets in the most cost-effective manner. Prime
Minister Modi highlighted India’s commitment to reduce its emissions intensity by 33–
35% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels and put in place 40% cumulative electric power
installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030 through
nationally determined development measures and priorities.

4. Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Cameron pledged to work together for an
ambitious and comprehensive Agreement under the UNFCCC at the Paris Climate
Conference in December 2015 that would be applicable to all.

5. The two Prime Ministers recognise the importance of building trust amongst Parties to
the UNFCCC and support the inclusion within the Paris Agreement of a transparency
framework, reflecting the need for all Parties to track and report progress regularly of
both action and support as appropriate towards achieving their efforts, which would
serve to demonstrate that all Parties are implementing their respective efforts.

6. Prime Minister Cameron and Prime Minister Modi welcomed the fact that 159 countries
have submitted intended nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement,
covering over 88% of global emissions. The two Prime Ministers supported global stock
takes, covering both action and support, periodically in order to achieve the objective of
the Convention.
7. Both leaders recognised the need for the Paris Agreement to give a clear signal to our
citizens, businesses and investors on the long-term direction of travel to foster
innovation and research and development to make clean energy more affordable.

8. The two Prime Ministers emphasised the importance of climate finance and of
developed countries honouring their commitment to mobilise jointly US$100bn a year
by 2020 from a wide variety of sources, both public and private, in the context of
meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation. The UK and India
recognised the crucial role of predictable and enhanced public and private climate
finance, to support mitigation and adaptation actions in developing countries. They also
recognised the role of climate finance in helping the deployment and development of
environmentally sound technologies and research and development addressing barriers
to bring about a shift in investment to help achieve the objective of the Convention.

9. The two Prime Ministers noted our partnership on climate resilience, which includes UK
support for India’s National and State Action Plans for Climate Change. This programme
will help reduce the climate risks to India’s highly vulnerable population, strengthen
adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change and generate lessons from which
other countries can learn.

10. Both leaders were pleased to note that successes from the UK India partnership on
climate change and energy would be showcased at the India Pavilion in Paris. They also
recognised the vital role youth can play in tackling climate change and shared a vision
for co-operation between youth climate networks in both countries to develop
innovative solutions to common climate challenges.

11. The two Prime Ministers recognised the importance of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) in providing a comprehensive assessment of climate change
based on available science. They highlighted the importance of an increased focus on
solutions to climate change and agreed to work together to support the Indian and UK
Co-Chairs of IPCC Working Group III as they lead the work on assessing options for
mitigating climate change in the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Cycle.

12. The two Prime Ministers committed to strengthen the existing energy partnership
between the UK and India. Looking ahead, they agreed their Ministers should meet for
regular summits to share views and explore opportunities for bilateral cooperation on
strategic priorities as well as push forward collaboration across the breadth of the
energy partnership, including joint collaboration on research, development,
demonstration and eventual deployment of clean technology and renewables, gas and
nuclear.

13. Under this broad framework of cooperation, Prime Minister Cameron and Prime
Minister Modi welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to
strengthen energy cooperation between the two countries building on existing
successes and promoting closer future collaboration in areas such as electricity market
reform, energy efficiency, offshore wind, solar power, smart grids, energy storage, and
 off-grid renewable energy services. They also welcomed the extension of the
collaboration between the UK and India on strategic energy planning.

14. The two Prime Ministers welcomed the successful conclusion of negotiations on a
bilateral Civil Nuclear Co-operation Agreement providing a framework for further co-
operation, and announced the signing of a MoU between the UK and the Indian
Department for Atomic Energy to encourage joint training and experience sharing on
Civil Nuclear with the Indian Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership.

15. Prime Minister Cameron and Prime Minister Modi reaffirmed the importance of global
collaboration on research and development in finding innovative solutions and their
applications to facilitate the expansion and reduce the costs of clean energy. They
agreed to work closely together on initiatives that would enhance and better co-
ordinate global efforts to this end. Prime Minister Cameron expressed UK support for
India’s initiative for an international solar alliance for the promotion of solar
technologies and applications.

16. The two Prime Ministers announced £10 million of joint funding from the Research
Councils UK and Indian Department of Science and Technology for a new Virtual Joint
Centre on clean energy, bringing the total value of the Indo-UK clean energy research
programme to £60 million. They welcomed the growing role of the private sector in their
countries in channelling investments in the clean energy space, which would catalyse
innovation and accelerate the pace of deployment of breakthrough technologies.

17. Prime Minister Modi highlighted the need for large scale, low cost, long term finance to
deliver India’s renewable energy ambitions, and noted the potential role that the City of
London could play in leveraging international capital towards this end. Prime Minister
Cameron announced the UK Climate Investment venture with the Green Investment
Bank, which will invest up to a total of £200 million of UK climate finance in renewable
energy and energy efficiency projects in India and Africa.

18. Prime Minister Cameron also announced UK funding for the India Innovation Lab for
Green Finance, an independent Indian initiative endorsed by the Government of India,
to bring together the private and public sectors to find innovative solutions to the
barriers to clean energy finance in India.

19. The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed the importance of sharing skills and expertise to
deliver secure, affordable and sustainable energy for all. Prime Minister Cameron
announced a £10 million five-year programme of Technical Assistance to support
national and state-level reforms in India’s power sector.

20. Prime Minister Cameron also announced a new Chevening Fellowship Scheme for clean
energy and climate change, which over three years will bring the future leaders of
India’s energy sector and in the field of climate change to the UK to study and build
partnerships.
21. The two Prime Ministers highlighted the strong Indo-UK commercial collaboration on
energy, which plays a key role in job and revenue generation in both economies. In
particular they welcomed Lightsource’s plans to invest £2 billion in India, building over 3
GW of solar electricity infrastructure including through a partnership with Srei
Infrastructure Finance Limited, and the recent announcement that UK technology
company Intelligent Energy has signed an agreement to acquire the energy management
business of Indian company GTL to provide efficient, clean and economical energy to
27,400 telecoms towers in India, with a total contract value of £1.2 billion over ten
years. The two Prime Ministers agreed to support UK and Indian companies operating in
both countries recognising that this was important for sharing expertise and experience
on how well functioning energy and gas markets can promote energy security and
economic growth as well as delivering a cost-effective low carbon transition.

22. Prime Minister Cameron and Prime Minister Modi emphasised the importance and
mutual benefit of continuing to work together in the areas of energy and climate change
to enhance the prosperity of both nations.

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